Crews open Stevens Creek Road
Commuters encountered a road-crew-free Stevens Creek Road a week ago.
An electronic sign on Stevens Creek Road announces that the road has reopened after a $1.4 million construction project. The reopening of the road is expected to help with the traffic congestion on Furys Ferry Road, which also is under construction.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
On Dec. 19, Columbia County officials reopened a 1,400-foot section of the thoroughfare that had been closed since July.
"We wanted to get the roadway open for holiday travel," said Shari Mendrick, the Columbia County Engineering and Environmental Services project manager.
After the holidays, however, drivers will face lane closures in the stretch of Stevens Creek Road between River Watch Parkway and Evans to Locks Road, Mendrick said.
"There will be temporary lane closures, but not during rush-hour traffic, to finish up smaller projects," she said. "We'll have traffic directed."
The road project included installing a 42-foot-by-10-foot culvert that raised the road 9 feet. Workers still have to plant grass on the shoulders of the road, complete a guardrail and fix entrances to a water treatment plant and West Lake Townhomes, Mendrick said.
The project cost more than $1.4 million, but 75 percent of the funding came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency hazard mitigation grant.
The nearly six-month-long project forced many commuters to detour onto Furys Ferry Road, which also is undergoing renovations.
A contractor for the state Department of Transportation recently completed widening Furys Ferry from River Watch Parkway to Baston Road.
Work is under way on phase two of the project, which includes widening the highway from Baston Road to Blackstone Camp Road, and is expected to be completed in October, Mendrick said.
The DOT also recently erected new traffic signals at the intersection of Furys Ferry Road and Pratt's Wood Drive, which is a few hundred feet north of River Watch Parkway, DOT project manager Gary Pulliam said.
The traffic signal was activated Tuesday and cost $75,000, he said.